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עכו ('Akko), formerly عكا ('Akkā) is a city on the north end of H̱efa Bay on the Mediterranean shore of ישראל (Yisra'el or Israel) with a population of 45 thousand.1 The city came into prominence when it became capital of one of the Crusader's feudal states and was named Saint-Jean-d'Acre (also called St. John d'Acre or just Acre). It was destroyed in the 16th century but populated again in the 18th. The old city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring the Crusader buildings and walls of the 12th and 13th centuries, and the Ottoman buildings of the 18th and 19th. The Ottoman khan became a British colonial prison. Just beyond the city proper is another World Heritage Site: the Bahá'í Shrine of Bahá'ulláh.
Year | Population | Political entity |
1200 CE | 40,0002 | Imperium Romanum Sacrum (Holy Roman Empire)3 |
2013 CE | 45,0001 | ישראל (Yisra'el or Israel) |
Interior of the Church of the Resurrection/ Holy Sepulcher, Yerushalayim (Jerusalem)
1. world-gazetteer.com, accessed 6/3/2013.
2. Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), "Tables of World's Largest Cities". It was the largest city in the area in 1200 CE.
3. King Amalric II owed secular allegiance to Heinrich VI of the Imperium Romanum Sacrum, though some would treat this area, the Regnum Hierosolimitanum, as independent.